Rip-off motorway services
Appearing on the news this morning on both channels a Which report that motorway services charge more for petrol and goods then supermarkets; in an additional report Which stated that the sky was blue and grass green.
What was worse was said services trying to run the poor old us scam by stating, accurately, that they didn't have the same degree of purchasing power of supermarkets. Stop being whiners, look we all know your prices are higher and yet amazingly people still buy things from you; why? Because they've left the house in a hurry, or are organised and suddenly realise they're low on petrol or forgot some bottled water.
It's called supply and demand; high demand, low supply. You don't like their prices buy from somewhere cheaper, oh they're the only ones around tough should have thought about that before you left.
I mean Gods what are they supposed to do say 'oh we must compete with supermarkets' they don't that's the whole point and the reason they can charge what they do; get supermarkets opening up service stations and I'll bet they'll be charging more then their town-centred siblings.
2 comments:
But publicity like this is part of the delicate balance of competition: if it makes the service stations believe that consumers are getting fed up of high prices, they know not to push their luck. I think that one of the benefits of the Consumer Association is that they offer opinions on value for money and quality of service, and even if only some consumers follow their advice, it's worth the while of the manufacturers, retailers, and so on to go for that market by making sure their value and quality are good. The CA in this respect acts like a negotiating partner on the side of consumers: even though each consumer makes an individual decision, the CA promotes consumer interests to the manufacturers.
Following the thread - if the consumers read the reports and thus stop shopping at the service stations and as such they see their profits drop; then they'll do something about it if not they'll ignore them.
It's a secondary cause rather than a primary one. The use of such reports is only if they produce or highlight something that hasn't really impinged on the awareness of the general public; so how many people don't know that the prices in such places are higher than elsewhere?
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